Daily Archives: August 22, 2013

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that DOROTHY ARLINE the holder of the following certificate has filed said certificate for a tax deed to be issued thereon. The certificate number and year of issuance, the description of the property and the names in which it was assessed are as follows:

CERTIFICATE NO: 07-00023
YEAR OF ISSUANCE: 2007

DESCRIPTION OF PROPERTY: A lot beginning on the north line of SW1/4 of NW1/4 of Section 28 in Township 3 South of Range 19 East 614 feet west of the northeast corner of said SW1/4 or NW1/4 of said Section 28, then run west 150 feet to Williams Tract, then run South to the right of way of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, then run easterly along the north line of said Railroad Right of Way 150 feet, and then run north to place of beginning.

ALL OF SAID PROPERTY BEING LOCATED IN BAKER COUNTY, FLORIDA.

NAME IN WHICH ASSESSED: HIRAM SMITH

Unless such certificate or certificates shall be redeemed according to law, the property described herein will be sold to the highest bidder at the front door of the Baker County Courthouse, Macclenny, Florida on THURSDAY OCTOBER 17, 2013 at 11:00 am.

A Glen St. Mary man was sentenced to 15 years in prison this week for his part in a drunk driving accident on U.S. 90 that killed two Sanderson men more than two years ago.

Christopher Wayne Wheeler, 37, was at the wheel of a 1994 Jeep Cherokee that ran the stop sign at the Smokey Road intersection and collided with the Ford Explorer driven by Ardris D. Paige, 43, a part-time basketball coach on his way home from practice at the Baker High the evening of November 16.

Mr. Paige and passenger Christopher V. Jefferson, 20, a former Wildcat athlete who played in a scrimmage game that night, were ejected in the crash and died. Two players on the basketball team, Delano Lee Paige, 19, and Marquis Paige, 17, were injured.

Members of victims’ family expressed their grief during a tear-filled sentencing the morning of March 19. Many members of both the victims’ and defendant’s families were present and comforted one another after the hearing before Circuit Judge Mark M. Moseley.

“If you were in his [Christopher Jefferson] presence, you were easily smiling,” said the victim’s cousin and friend Marcell Thomas.

Two large wildfires that erupted Saturday, March 16 were contained early the following day and no property damage was reported, according to Doc Bloodworth, a wildfire mitigation specialist with the Florida Forest Service.

He said about 65 acres were scorched off L.E. Harvey Road in the south county, coming close to residential properties like the one shown above. That blaze was contained Sunday afternoon and crews remained there early this week for “mop up” operations.

A 22-acre wildfire started on Sawtooth Dr. off Steel Bridge Road north of Macclenny the same windy afternoon and was contained about two hours after the L.E. Harvey Road fire.

Both fires resulted from authorized burns that got out of control. The threat of wildfire activity remains moderate to low in Baker County, according to state’s drought and fire danger indexes. So far this year in the Suwannee Forestery District (Baker, Bradford, Suwannee, Columbia and Hamilton counties), 104 wildfires have burned 408.8 acres.